Articles by Grist staff

Wealthy strive for

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately," wrote Henry David Thoreau. His experiment in stripping down has inspired generations of environmentalists to cast off possessions, or at least aspire to -- but simple living doesn't look so appealing when it's the only choice you have. Today, anthropologist Elizabeth Chin puts a new spin on environmental consciousness as she examines rich and poor consumers, and the difference between simple living and survival.

An interactive illustration of how the other half lives

You know how, in grade school, it was easier to understand multiplication when there were pictures of fruit and panda bears involved? Today we bring you that. Only, the multiplication is now stats about poverty and the environment. And the pictures of fruit and panda bears are now an original illustration by Keri Rosebraugh. Which has pop-up factoids. We bet you haven't had this much fun since grade school. Check it out.

Global Warring

Climate change a major security problem, says U.K. defense chief U.K. Defense Secretary John Reid has echoed a growing number of analysts by stressing that global warming is not just a weather problem, or a health problem, or a problem for biodiversity. It’s a global security problem. In a Monday speech, Reid called on the […]

Repent, Ye Synners

Shady synfuel industry making billions off tax-credit loophole A budget bill currently being hashed out in Congress may help a few dozen coal plants continue to get filthy rich off of taxpayer money. The backstory: In 1980, Congress enacted tax incentives for turning coal into synthetic fuel, requiring only that the coal be chemically altered […]